The Cake

Certain occasions deserve special baked goods. Another culture-cake connection. (Rcp# 0022)

Ingredients for ‘The Cake’

For the cake base:

• 60 g Coconut flour (≈ 5 Tablespoons)
• 25 g Corn flour (≈ 2 tablespoons)
• 15 g Rice flour (≈ 1 ½ tablespoons)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon carob bean gum
• 1/2 teaspoon guar gum
• 50 g vegan butter
• 1 heaped teaspoon coconut oil (portion size of a walnut)
• 40 g coconut yogurt ( ≈ 2 ½ tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon apple pulp
• ½ mashed overripe banana
• 20 g coconut blossom sugar (≈ 2 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon rice syrup
• 1 tablespoons mildly de-oiled cacao
• 1 pinch of basil (dried, crumbled to very fine pieces)
• canola oil (mild, ‘buttery taste’, for oiling baking form)

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For the fruit topping:

• 3 – 4 pears (buttery soft type, ripe, but not overripe, store in fridge before using, ≈ 200 g unpeeled)
• 1 ripe banana ( ≈ 100 g unpeeled)
• 150 g raspberries (fresh, if you only have frozen berries, see Side Notes below)
• 100 g blueberries (70 – 75 depending on size, fresh, if you only have frozen berries, see Side Notes below)
• 100 ml acerola berry juice (or other dark berry juice, pure juice, no sugar added)
• 1 ½ teaspoon guar gum
• 2 teaspoons tapioca starch
• 2 teaspoons potato starch or corn starch
• 5 tablespoons coconut blossom sugar
• 2 tablespoons rice syrup
• 4 g agar-agar (1 heaped teaspoon)
• 100 ml water

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Equipment, you need

• Dough bowl
• Springform pan – Ø 19 cm
• Cake ring (adjustable)
• Compact blender or wand blender with high bowl (must hold 1,5 liters)
• Pot with 2 l cooking space (fat free)

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Baking Instructions and Preparations for ‘The Cake’

For the cake base:

1. Combine mashed banana, apple pulp, sugar, cacao and spices in a large bowl. Stir well. Add yogurt and stir again until you have a smooth, thick sauce.
2. Combine all the flours, making three small holes in the flour pile. Put the baking powder in one hole, then the locust bean gum and guar gum in another hole. Mix the flours well. Sift if necessary (coconut flour tends to stick).
3. Gradually add the flour mixture to the pulp and spice mixture. Knead until no liquid remains.
4. Carefully heat the coconut oil in a water bath (small ceramic or metal pot placed in hot water – must be heatproof) until it is soft enough to be easily worked into dough (like soft butter).
5. Add the butter (in flakes on the side of the bowl) and coconut oil to the dough. Knead well until smooth.
6. Let rest in a cool place for 1 – 2 hours.
7. Roll out the dough on a smooth surface to a little more than 0.5 cm high, then cut out a circle for the springform pan (make a paper model first, or cut carefully around the turned bottom of the springform pan – don’t leave any fat or dough on the outside of the pan, it will burn and stink).
8. Transfer the dough to the greased springform pan. Carefully seal any holes in the bottom of the pan. Do not allow the dough to rise up the sides of the pan. Just lay it flat on the bottom of the pan. Use a fork to poke small rows of holes in the dough (about 15 times, evenly distribute the holes or the dough will bubble and break as it rises).
9. Preheat the oven to 175°C (pure convection, no extra top or bottom heat) and bake for 20 minutes.
10. Allow to cool completely before proceeding with the recipe.

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For the fruit topping:

1. Peel and chop pears and banana and place in blender jug. Set a third of the raspberries and blueberries aside, picking out the nicest ones. Add remaining blueberries and raspberries, 2 tablespoons coconut sugar and rice syrup to blender jug and puree until smooth (crush raspberry seeds).
2. Dissolve the tapioca starch, potato starch and guar gum in the cold fruit juice. Stir well to dissolve. Add to fruit mixture and blend.
3. Heat 100 ml of water in a small saucepan. Cook the agar-agar according to the package directions (usually bubbling for 3 minutes), then turn off the heat, remove the saucepan, and let cool for 5 minutes.
4. Gradually add the fruit mixture to the agar-agar gel, stirring well after each spoonful. After about 5-6 tablespoons, carefully add the rest of the fruit mixture and stir well.
5. Gently reheat the pot until the entire filling thickens noticeably. Stir well as the mixture thickens, then remove from heat. Do not boil! It will stick and burn easily. Allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm.
6. Place the cooled cake base on a large rimmed plate and arrange the cake ring snugly around the edge so that the topping stays on top and does not spill over. Spread the remaining blueberries and raspberries on the cake base and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons of the coconut sugar. Pour the fruit topping over the covered fruits on the cake base (it should be very thick now, not like a liquid or it will run through the sides of the cake ring). Make sure the cake ring is secure around the cake base (I usually use rubber bands to hold it in place). Allow to cool to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator.
7. Refrigerate with the cake ring on for at least 18 – 20 hours. Before removing the cake ring, lift it slightly to the bottom of the filling. If you cannot lift it freely or the filling is not set enough, return it to the refrigerator for another 2 hours.

Please note that you must make this cake the day before you want to serve it because the filling needs time to set. Also, the cake base should be cooled to room temperature before adding the filling, or the filling may become more liquid again.

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Side Notes:

• In the late summer of 2020, two very special people got married. Yes, you guessed it: no family and friends to celebrate with them, no party, not even a wedding cake.
  This cake is to make up for that, so I am dedicating this recipe to that couple. And maybe the recipe will give a basic idea of a theme for what the wedding cake will look like when they (I hear) want to use their fifth anniversary to finally have their big wedding party. Congratulations and all the best! I love you.
• I promise to add a few more tiers and a slightly larger diameter to ‘The Cake’ to make it fit the occasion. I will also post those additions here on the blog (recipe and picture). If you don’t want to call it by its official title of The Cake, it is known privately as the ‘Raspberry Blues Cake’.
• Frozen berries: If fresh berries are out of season, you can use frozen berries in the blended part of the fruit topping. For the layer that is covered with the coconut blossom sugar, you will need fresh fruit. You can use berry-sized pieces of pear/apricot, or whatever is fresh at the time. Also if you are blending frozen fruit, make sure it is completely thawed before adding agar agar, tapioca starch, potato starch, or guar gum. These starches/gums do not like to be mixed with frozen items. They become sticky and lose their glaze.

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